April blew out with rain and storms and May has moved in with some sunshine.
Long may it continue…
Living in France
Lofty Days
Last week we started to insulate the loft above Marion and Ian’s House. There is a large hole at the end of the room which is actually access from one of the barns, this is handy but the wind blows a gale through it so we will put a door covering it which will be a fire escape.
First job, lay the sound proofing material
Then we cover the floor with MDF boards to give us a clean flat surface.
Exterior walls are insulated and the door is installed so no more gales…
As ever Barnaby is on hand to help out, well give cuddles…
Next job Sanding the beams and digging holes in the walls for the electric cables….
Mmm sounds like dirty work…
Almond Blossom and Blue Skies
Mother Nature is continuing to confuse us all, including the trees, flora and fauna. Our already warm winter has heated up over the last couple of days with barmy February temperatures of 22degrees and at last a couple of days of blue skies and sunshine. All of this has excited the almond trees into bursting open with blossom, which is about three weeks too early.
The blossoms are beautiful and have a heady sweet scent.
Back to grey skies and rain for the next week, oh well i have to keep remembering that its only February.
First spring flowers
Our daffodils have just started to flower, they are our first spring flours, let’s hope winter doesn’t decide to reappear.
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Sunny Sunday
After a week of grey clouds and cold winds, Mother Nature has given us a lovely sunny Sunday, what a lovely way to end the week.
You can feel the heat of the sun on your skin, it’s a tonic. And it looks like the temperatures due to rise over the next week a giddy 17degrees by next weekend.
Merry Christmas
Wishing all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
Love from us all at Maison Mûrier
Categories: Living in France
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Christmas decs and sunny days
It seems a bit odd to be here writing this post about our Christmas decs when it’s been 27 degrees today. It’s not usually this hot at Christmas, I have to say, and the plants and wildlife are all a bit confused, as are we. But we are not complaining as I know so many people have been having truly awful weather.
View of our house bathed in sunshine today, truly blue sky living.
27 degrees today T shirt weather
Here is our house all decked for the festive season.
Merry Merry from us all here at Maison Mûrier.
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Time for a catch up….
Hi again, sorry for the lack of posts, i can’t believe our last was back in October, and where did all those weeks go?
The last six weeks have flown by as has the last few years, is the earth turning faster? or maybe its just that I’m getting older and time seems to be going faster?
So what have we been up to, well its been a busy six weeks here at Maison Mûrier, i was going to say that we have just been working on the interior of the house again as its much too cold to be outside, but the weather has been bizzarley warm during the days, well after midday anyway, so its been a mix of inside and outside work.
We have had misty mornings
Some have been frosty
But after lunch its been generally very warm, even warn enough for T shirts,
Blue skies and lickums whilst out walking with barnabas Pickles today
We have had some stunning sunsets, this one was taken yesterday on our way home from visiting a few vineyards as you do on a Saturday afternoon….
So whilst the weather has been good we have been in the garden tidying up for winter and also moving things around a bit. To give some winter interest, i have moved the old cart from the side of the house to under the tree outside the kitchen window, when i moved it i noticed most of the wood on the top was rotten so had to do some renovation work on it.
Ive planted the pots up with some winter flowers and spring tulip bulbs.
The wall planters have had a mixture of heathers, heres and pansies put in them.
Back inside we have moved into our own living room so that Marion and Ian can start to decorate their living room and kitchen,which we have been using for the last two years.
We have done a temporary make over to make it all cosy for winter.
Barnaby Pickles seems to like it.
We have papered the alcove walls using old 1950s newspapers that were found in a storage trunk that Marion and Ian bought.
Up in the loft we are converting to bedrooms, we have been busy finishing off lots of little jobs before we get the electrician in to do the first fix. kev has been busy pottering about with plumbing for all the ensuite bathrooms, and i have been busy chiselling out all the old pointing from one of the stone walls in the guest bathroom. We want to keep some original features to add character, this wall will eventually be repointed, you can see the difference between the right and left side of the wall, the left side will be tiled over, it sounded simple but took most of a day to do and that was using an industrial hammer drill.
And what have barnaby Pickles and Miel Miaow been doing whilst all this has been going on?
Mostly relaxing and snoozing…..
Bye for now catch up soon.
Time to Come Indoors
A little over 18 months ago, on April 1st 2014, I posted a blog explaining how I had spent a couple of days installing our pool and terrace. The more astute among you will have noticed that it was an April Fool’s, and that the tiny photo was badly doctored:
In the passing 18 months, we’ve been toiling hard to build the pool and the surrounding terrace, and today – our last day working out in the garden before we transfer back to working indoors – we finished the last couple of tasks to complete it. After 1.3km of decking planks and 7000 screws, here is the final result:
I’m sure Phill, Marion & Ian would like to join me in thanking everyone who gave some of their time and effort, and helped us along the way. Claude, our neighbour, for hours digging channels and test holes with his mini digger; Lionel, our friend in the village, who turned up on endless days to help, and who taught us an invaluable French phrase: Jamais Plus – Never Again; John, who dug out the initial hole for the pool, and persuaded Phill to spend an extortionate amount on “200 year-old Parisian” (yeah, right) iron railings to go around the terrace (but which were so worth it); Michel our electrician, and general pool advisor; Luke, our friend from London, who spent a couple of hours on his hands and knees, screwing; Boris, Ian’s brother-in-law, whose relaxing stay in the south of France meant wheeling barrow loads of concrete around the garden; Dave, Phill’s brother-in-law, who can turn his hand to anything! And to everyone else who supplied us with cups of tea, and meals, and bottles of beer at the end of the day.
As I mentioned, our attention now turns inside. It will be a busy winter converting the loft into 3 bedrooms. Next spring will see us return to finish off some of the walls near the pool, and build a summer kitchen.
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